


Life Day on the Ghost

by vaenire



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Christmas fic, F/M, Gen, Space family, kanan jarrus/hera syndulla - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 14:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8848222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaenire/pseuds/vaenire
Summary: When Chopper gets Ezra and Zeb caught shaking the gifts on the eve of Life Day, the crew decides to open a gift a night early. Space family fluff :)





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is set post-Hera's Heroes in Season 3

Ezra never could sleep the night before Life Day. 

Well, Life Day wasn’t much different than any other day since his parents were taken, when he was living by himself. But now he was on the Ghost, and he’d seen the gifts spread on the benches under the miniature fake Life Day tree set up on the Dejarik table—he’d helped acquire some of those gifts, too. 

The Ghost crew didn’t usually have the luxury of putting together gifts for Life Day—usually Hera would be able to pull strings to get some sweet things, and they might sing a song that Sabine or Zeb knew, but it was never a real fanfare. 

This year was different. And Ezra couldn’t help the excitement. 

He heard Zeb shift down in his bunk. Ezra wanted to say something, ask if Zeb had any guesses as to what he got in his present, but Zeb’s been indifferent toward the holiday since Hera brought up trading gifts this year. 

Ezra knows that Zeb has gifts under the tree, so it’s not that he’s not participating, Ezra just knows he would be met with grumbling. 

Outside their door, Chopper passes noisily. 

When Ezra was a kid, he never slept the night before Life Day. It feels nostalgic to be kept up by the same excitement.

Chopper passes by their door again, humming. 

“What is that droid doing?” Zeb grumbled. Chopper’s clanking faded into the distance, Zeb’s question unanswered. Silence fell again.

Until Chopper passed by the door again just a few minutes later. 

“Blast it, we’re tryna sleep in here,” Zeb said, rolling off his bunk and trudging over to the door. Ezra watched him slide the door open. Chopper was waiting on the other side, already humming something at Zeb. 

“What do you want, you piece of junk?” Zeb said, nudging the droid’s leg with his foot. Chopper bleeped indignantly, leaning back and forth with his mech arms in the air. 

“[Let’s investigate the gifts],” Chopper said, his tone sly. 

Ezra sat up. “What?” 

“Go power down, Chopper,” Zeb said, waving his arm. 

“[Don’t you want to see if there’s anything good?]”

“Not particularly.” 

Zeb caught sight of Ezra as he crawled out of bed. 

“Kid, you’re not going to, are ya?” 

“If Chopper is, why can’t I?” Ezra got his feet on the ground and crossed his arms. “What harm could it do?” 

Zeb crossed his arms too, but didn’t have a response.

“Just come on,” Ezra said. Chopper bleeped triumphantly, already spinning around toward the common area. Ezra followed him, and Zeb trailed behind reluctantly. 

The small collection of gifts had grown somewhat since Ezra had looked last; Hera and Kanan probably made some last minute additions. 

Ezra surveyed the tags, eyes landing on a brightly wrapped boxed. The tag read “To: Ezra, From: Sabine.” He grinned, picking it up and shaking it. 

A loud pop! sounded near his ear, and suddenly Ezra was covered in a cloud of green. His vision was full of it, and he dropped the box to frantically rub at his eyes. Zeb and Chopper were laughing at him, and he didn’t need to see him to know Zeb was slapping his knee. Chopper grabbed a gift and held it over his dome, zooming off to some corner right as the door to the dorm hall opened, revealing Hera, Kanan and Sabine. 

Hera, hands on her hips, was first through the doorway, closely followed by the other two: Kanan held loosely to her elbow, mask off and hair down. He looked just as tired and rigid as Hera did. Sabine on the other hand just peaked over Hera’s opposite shoulder, her hand covering her mouth as she laughed at the green mess her booby trap had made of Ezra. 

“What are you two doing out here?” Kanan asked sternly. 

“The kid wanted to check out the presents,” Zeb said, a laugh still audible in his voice. Ezra frowned at him deeply. 

“It was Chopper!” Ezra exclaimed. “Where’d that piece of junk get to?” He turned around in a circle, but Chopper was nowhere to be found. 

“Of course it was. How’d I know one of you all would try to open presents early?” Hera said, shaking her head. 

Ezra scoffed indignantly. “We weren’t opening them; we were just checking them out.” 

Hera rolled her eyes, but relented. She scooted some gifts off the bench and stacked them precariously on the table, making room for Kanan to sit. 

“Chopper!” she called. “I know you can hear me. You better not have opened a gift yet!” There was a moment of silence before Chopper shuffled out of the low closet in the corner of the room. He was still holding the gift he had snagged. “Put it back.” 

Sadly, and not without some fussy comment, Chopper slid the box back onto the table. 

“Alright, now we’re all going to go back to bed. It’s time to go to sleep.” 

Ezra groaned, “Can’t we open one gift tonight? We’re all here, anyway.” 

Hera raised an eyebrow, putting her hand on Kanan’s shoulder as a question. Kanan shrugged. “We’re all up anyway. Sabine, do you want to?” 

“Ha, maybe after Ezra washes his face off.” Ezra frowned at her. “It comes off with water, don’t worry.” 

“Okay, once you do that we can open a present. Just one, we want to save most of them for actual Life Day.” 

When Ezra was sufficiently green-paint-free, and they had all managed to stack the presents so that they could all sit on the bench around the Dejarik table—with Zeb in the very middle, Sabine and Kanan on either side of him, and Hera and Ezra on the ends— they each chose a present to open. 

Sabine pushed her box toward Ezra, but he pushed it right back. “Uh-uh, I’ve had enough of your trap box tonight.” He reached for a small red package instead, which the tag said was from Hera. 

“Ok, when I was growing up we would open our gifts one at a time, youngest going first,” Hera said. “So, Ezra, go ahead.” 

Ezra took the package in his hands, carefully pulling back a strip of the red paper. Hera had wrapped it with a few layers, so it took him a moment to reveal the fabric within. He pulled out the tight knit item to reveal a thick pair of socks. 

“Oh.” They were thick and black, with long ankles. Good for boots, probably. “Thanks, Hera.” He hoped he didn’t sound disappointed—they were nice socks, and more than what he had gotten for Life Day for years. Zeb chuckled at him. 

“I bought them at the Capitol City market. They’re really high quality.” 

Ezra pinched the fabric between his fingers. He could tell they were good quality. He did need socks, so it was a pragmatic and useful gift. “Really, thank you Hera.” 

“Alright, Sabine, your turn,” Zeb said, nudging the girl. 

“Okay, this one’s from Hera and Kanan.” She opened it quickly, with little fanfare, and pulled the top off the box to reveal an empty canister a pump system and spray can lid. 

“It’s reusable, and the pump help keeps the spray even,” Hera explained. “It can only do one color at a time, so it might be more useful once we can get our hands on more…” 

“Thank you Hera,” Sabine said, pulling the parts of it out to see how they fit together and worked. “It’s got a nice grip.” 

“Who’s next?” Ezra asked, looking to Zeb. 

Zeb raised his brows, shaking his head. “Not me.” Zeb turned to Kanan, then leaned forward to look at Hera. “It’s you, right?” 

“I suppose so,” Hera said. She had grabbed a gift wrapped similarly to the one Ezra had shaken. “This isn’t booby trapped, is it?” she asked warily. 

Sabine shook her head, “I knew you wouldn’t pull an Ezra.” Ezra made an indignant sound. 

Hera just smiled, pulled the ribbon on her gift loose. The paper fell apart, revealing the gift. Hera stared down at it. 

“Did you… make this?” Hera said, looking up at Sabine. 

“It was more of a group effort.” 

Kanan put his hand out to feel what she had. She placed the wooden object in his hand, the two links of square wooden beads flailing slightly. 

Kanan smiled knowingly. “I holo called Cham so he could describe your family’s kalikori to Sabine. All of us made a part.” 

Hera blinked rapidly and bit her lip, taking the kalikori back and running her fingers over it. “It’s really well made.” It was clear who had made each part, from the colorful part to the section covered in binary print. 

She looked up again with a watery smile. “This means a lot. Thank you.” 

Kanan cleared his throat. “Now it’s my turn?” 

Hera nodded. 

“Which one of these says my name?”   
“Oh,” Hera said with a soft laugh. “Yeah, uh…” she looked over the ones in front of her quickly. Zeb held up one, placing it over Kanan’s hand where he could feel it and take it. “Thank you, Zeb. This one’s from Sabine.” 

Kanan carefully ripped the paper off of the box, feeling the edge of the lid and slipping it off. He felt the fabric and pulled it out. 

“It’s a cloak,” Hera said. “It’s dark green like your pauldron.” 

“Try it on!” Sabine said. 

“Yeah, model it for us,” Ezra chimed in. 

“Oh, I can do that in the morning. It’s Zeb’s turn.” 

“No, I think we should see it on you,” Zeb said, nudging him. Hera laughed, sliding off her seat to let Kanan up. She pulled on his arm lightly. Kanan shook his head, but stood anyway and let Hera hold the cloak for him as he put it on and buttoned the front. 

“It looks good. Is it warm?” 

“Eh, it breathes. Where’d you get it?” Kanan asked. 

Sabine scoffed. “I’m not Hera—I’m not telling where I got my gifts.” 

“Well, thank you.” He put his hand on the back of the bench as he slid back into his seat, Hera taking hers again as well. 

“Okay Zeb, now it’s your turn.” 

“Yeah alright.” He took the gift that he’d chosen and read the tag. “This is from Ezra and Sabine.” Sabine once again put a hand in front of her mouth to hide her smile. 

With one strip of paper pulled away, the bright pink and purple faux fur was revealed. Zeb’s brows furrowed, and Sabine burst into laughter. Zeb shot her a glance, halfway dropping the package back on the table. 

“You have to finish unwrapping it,” Ezra said, smiling slyly. 

Zeb sighed deeply and pulled the thing out of the paper. It was a hat with Loth cat ears, and long flaps extednign from either side which ended in pockets with paw designs. The entire affair was stripped bright purple and pink. 

“What is this?” Zeb demanded. 

Finally, Ezra and Sabine howled with laughter. “It’s uh, it’s to keep you warm,” Ezra provided. 

“Yeah, if you ever get stuck on another ice moon.” 

Zeb watched them laugh at him, he himself trying to keep his face entirely straight. He couldn’t help the shadow a smile, though. 

“You should model it for us,” Kanan said, not hiding his smile whatsoever. 

Zeb’s face cracked, and just like that he was laughing along with Ezra and Sabine. 

“Let’s see how it looks,” Hera encouraged. 

Shaking his head incredulously, Zeb arranged it so the Loth cat ears would face the right way and slid it onto his head. The others’ howling laughter grew even louder. 

Once the laughter had died down, Hera asked them to gather the debris from the presents and put it away. 

“Now, really, you all need to go to sleep. We’ll open the rest in the morning. No more sneaking about!” 

Sabine and Zeb chatter on their way to their rooms, Sabine reaching up to squeeze the pink ears on Zeb’s hat. 

“Hera,” Ezra said, stalling beside the Dejarik table. He glanced at Kanan. “I really do appreciate the socks you got me. I hope it didn’t seem like I didn’t.” 

“I know it’s not a very exciting gift.” She put a hand on his arm. “Go to sleep, now and you can open up the more exciting ones in the morning.” 

Ezra hesitated, as if there was something else he wanted to say, but decided against it and followed where Zeb and Sabine had gone. 

Kanan had his arms outstretched over the table, and Hera put one of her arms over his. 

“So everyone pitched in on this?” Hera said, letting one of the loose sides of the kalikori lay against his hand. 

“Cham had a picture that Sabine based it off of,” he said, nodding. “She wanted to make it different from it, though, not just a copy, so she had us all describe what we wanted our part to look like.” 

“She must have put a lot of work into this,” Hera said admiringly. The interlocking pieces moved differently than the Syndulla clan’s had, swinging forward and back but not side to side, and the handle was made from a smoother wood. Brylark bark, probably. 

“We all knew it meant a lot to you.” Kanan pulled his arm away from her and put it around her shoulders, pulling her tight against him and chancing a kiss to the side of her head. He slid his other hand into the pocket of his cloak. His hand hit something harder there, and he pulled it out cautiously. It was square and flat, with the one side contoured almost like a face. He set it on the table silently, his hand feeling over it. “What is this?” 

Hera laid her head on his shoulder. “Ezra felt so bad about the holocrons. He knew it was the last image of the Jedi you had, and he was the only one who had seen a lot of what was on it.” 

The thing was hard like duraplast, but the contours were soft as if carved from wood. He could feel the person’s cheeks and chin. He lingered over the eyes and paused when he felt the protuberance of a round dot on the bridge of the nose. 

He was silent a moment. “They’re good kids, aren’t they?” 

Hera nodded against his shoulder. “They are.”


End file.
